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WWII History for June 4 – Battle of Midway

04 Jun

Today in WWII History – The Battle of Midway

World War II History for June 4

Audio: MBS News – The Battle of Midway 06.04.1942

 WWII History - 06.04.1942 - MBS News Broadcast - The Battle of Midway [1:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Jun 04, 1940 “We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory. War’s are not won by evacuations.” – Winston Churchill – To Parliament

Jun 04, 1942 Battle of Midway

Jun 04, 1942 Battle of Midway – PBYs attack Occupation Force northwest of Midway; one PBY torpedoes fleet tanker Akebono Maru.

Jun 04, 1942 Battle of Midway – Japanese carrier fleet – Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu – sends its aircraft against defensive installations on Midway. Although defending USMC F2A’s and F4F’s suffer disastrous losses, damage to facilities on Midway is comparatively slight.

Jun 04, 1942 Battle of Midway – Japanese carrier fighters and antiaircraft fire annihilates the USMC SBD’s and SB2U’s, Navy’s new TBF’s, and USAAF torpedo-carrying B-26′s sent from Midway Island to attack the Japanese carriers. USAAF B-17′s likewise bomb the Japanese carrier force without success.

Jun 04, 1942 Battle of Midway – Concentrating on the destruction of Midway air forces, the Japanese carriers were caught unprepared for the U.S. carrier air attack.

Jun 04, 1942 Battle of Midway – Torpedo bombers (TBD’s) from American carrier striking force Hornet (CV-8), Enterprise (CV-6), and Yorktown (CV-5) attack the enemy carriers. Although mauled by the defending combat air patrol and antiaircraft fire, they draw off the former and leave the skies open for dive bombers (SBD’s) from Enterprise and Yorktown.

Jun 04, 1942 Battle of Midway – SBD’s from Enterprise sink carrier Kaga and bomb Akagi (flagship) SBD’s; SBD’s from Yorktown bomb and sink carrier Soryu.

Jun 04, 1942 Battle of Midway – Submarine Nautilus (SS-168) torpedoes carrier Kaga but her “fish” do not explode.

Jun 04, 1942 Battle of Midway – Hiryu escapes destruction that morning, launches dive bombers that temporarily disable Yorktown. Fletcher transfers flag to Astoria (CA-34) .

Jun 04, 1942 Battle of Midway – A second Japanese counter attack 2 hours later, damages Yorktown with bombs and torpedoes so severely that she was abandoned.

Jun 04, 1942 Battle of Midway – In the late afternoon, SBD’s from Enterprise, including Yorktown planes, hit the Japanese Force again, striking Hiryu, the fourth and last of the Japanese carriers.

Jun 04, 1942 Battle of Midway – TF-16 (Spruance) released at dusk.

Jun 04, 1942 Battle of Midway – With control of the air irretrievably lost, the Japanese are compelled to abandon Midway invasion plans and the invasion force retires westward.

Jun 04, 1942 – Jun 05, 1942 Battle of Midway – Overnight – Three Japanese fleets, with ten battleships, including Yamato, the world’s largest battleship, two escort carriers, cruisers, and destroyers race to engage the U.S. carriers.

Jun 04, 1942 – Jun 05, 1942 Battle of Midway – Overnight – The U.S. fleet withdraws till midnight, then returns to the protective air cover of Midway.

Jun 04, 1942 – Jun 05, 1942 Battle of Midway – Overnight – Finding nothing, the Japanese battle fleets also withdraws.

Jun 04, 1942 Battle of Midway – 4:1 win in favor of US

 
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World War II History for June 6 – D-Day

06 Jun

Today in WWII History

World War II History for June 6 – D-Day

1942 - Japanese forces retreated in the World War II Battle of Midway. The battle had begun on June 4.

1944 - Operation “Overlord” – The D-Day invasion of Europe took place on the beaches of Normandy, France. 400,000 Allied American, British and Canadian troops were involved.

On this day in 1944, Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the go-ahead for the largest amphibious military operation in history: Operation Overlord, code named D-Day, the Allied invasion of northern France.

By daybreak, 18,000 British and American parachutists were already on the ground. At 6:30 a.m., American troops came ashore at Utah and Omaha beaches. At Omaha, the U.S. First Division battled high seas, mist, mines, burning vehicles—and German coastal batteries, including an elite infantry division, which spewed heavy fire. Many wounded Americans ultimately drowned in the high tide. British divisions, which landed at Gold, Juno, and Sword beaches, and Canadian troops also met with heavy German fire, but by the end of the day they were able to push inland.

Despite the German resistance, Allied casualties overall were relatively light. The United States and Britain each lost about 1,000 men, and Canada 355. Before the day was over, 155,000 Allied troops would be in Normandy. However, the United States managed to get only half of the 14,000 vehicles and a quarter of the 14,500 tons of supplies they intended on shore.

Three factors were decisive in the success of the Allied invasion. First, German counterattacks were firm but sparse, enabling the Allies to create a broad bridgehead, or advanced position, from which they were able to build up enormous troop strength. Second, Allied air cover, which destroyed bridges over the Seine, forced the Germans to suffer long detours, and naval gunfire proved decisive in protecting the invasion troops. And third, division and confusion within the German ranks as to where the invasion would start and how best to defend their position helped the Allies. (Hitler, convinced another invasion was coming the next day east of the Seine River, refused to allow reserves to be pulled from that area.)

Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, commander of Britain’s Twenty-first Army Group (but under the overall command of General Eisenhower, for whom Montgomery, and his ego, proved a perennial thorn in the side), often claimed later that the invasion had come off exactly as planned. That was a boast, as evidenced by the failure to take Caen on the first day, as scheduled. While the operation was a decided success, considering the number of troops put ashore and light casualties, improvisation by courageous and quick-witted commanders also played an enormous role.

The D-Day invasion has been the basis for several movies, from The Longest Day (1962), which boasted an all-star cast that included Richard Burton, Sean Connery, John Wayne and Robert Mitchum, to Saving Private Ryan (1998), which includes some of the most grippingly realistic war scenes ever filmed, captured in the style of the famous Robert Capa still photos of the actual invasion. [1]

[1] “Allies invade France,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=52586 (accessed Jun 6, 2009).

 
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World War II History for June 4

04 Jun

Today in WWII History

World War II History for June 4

4 JUN 1940 - The British completed the evacuation of 300,000 troops at Dunkirk, France.

4 JUN 1941 - In Germany, the Nazis began restricting Jews access to beaches and swimming pools.

4 JUN 1942 - The Battle of Midway began. It was the first major victory for America over Japan during World War II. The battle ended on June 6 and ended Japanese expansion in the Pacific.

4 JUN 1944 - The U-505 became the first enemy submarine captured by the U.S. Navy.

Captured U-505
USS Abnaki towing captured Nazi U-505[1]

4 JUN 1944 - During World War II, the U.S. Fifth Army entered Rome, which began the liberation of the Italian capital.

[1] Task Group 22.3 Report (Enclosure G), Photograph 471 http://www.uboatarchive.net/U-505EnclG471.htm

 
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World War II History for February 10

10 Feb

Today in WWII History

World War II History for February 10

10 FEB 1936 - The German Gestapo was placed above the law.

10 FEB 1942 - The “Normandie,” the former French liner, capsized in New York Harbor. The day before the ship had caught fire while it was being fitted for the U.S. Navy.

10 FEB 1942 - Japanese sub bombards Midway

On this day, a Japanese submarine launches a brutal attack on Midway, a coral atoll used as a U.S. Navy base. It was the fourth bombing of the atoll by Japanese ships since December 7.

The capture of Midway was an important part of the broader Japanese strategy of trying to create a defensive line that would stretch from the western Aleutian Islands in the north to the Midway, Wake, Marshall, and Gilbert Islands in the south, then west to the Dutch West Indies. Occupying Midway would also mean depriving the United States of a submarine base and would provide the perfect launching pad for an all-out assault on Hawaii.

Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, mastermind of the Pearl Harbor attack and commander in chief of the Japanese combined fleet, knew that only the utter destruction of U.S. naval capacity would ensure Japanese free reign in the Pacific. Japanese bombing of the atoll by ship and submarine failed to break through the extraordinary defense put up by Adm. Chester Nimitz, commander of the U.S. Navy in the Pacific, who used every resource available to protect Midway and, by extension, Hawaii. Yamamoto persevered with an elaborate warship operation, called Mi, launched in June, but the Battle of Midway was a disaster for Japan, and was the turning point for ultimate American victory in the Pacific.[1]

Isoroku Yamamoto

Isoroku Yamamoto

“Japanese sub bombards Midway,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=6708 (accessed Feb 10, 2009).

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World War II History for December 5

05 Dec

Today in WW II History

World War II History for December 5

1941 – American carrier Lexington heads to Midway

On this day, the Lexington, one of the two largest aircraft carriers employed by the United States during World War II, makes its way across the Pacific in order to carry a squadron of dive bombers to defend Midway Island from an anticipated Japanese attack.

Negotiations between the United States and Japan had been ongoing for months. Japan wanted an end to U.S. economic sanctions. The Americans wanted Japan out of China and Southeast Asia and Japan to repudiate the Tripartite “Axis” Pact with Germany and Italy before those sanctions could be lifted. Neither side was budging. President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull were anticipating a Japanese strike as retaliation-they just didn’t know where. The Philippines, Wake Island, Midway Island-all were possibilities. American intelligence reports had sighted the Japanese fleet movement out from Formosa (Taiwan), apparently headed for Indochina.

The U.S. State Department demanded from Japanese envoys explanations for the fleet movement across the South China Sea. The envoys claimed ignorance. Army intelligence reassured the president that, despite fears, Japan was most likely headed for Thailand-not the United States.

The Lexington never made it to Midway Island; when it learned that the Japanese fleet had, in fact, attacked Pearl Harbor, it turned back-never encountering a Japanese warship en route or employing a single aircraft in its defense. By the time it reached Hawaii, it was December 13.

1944 - During World War II, Allied troops took Ravenna, Italy.

1945 - Aircraft squadron lost in the Bermuda Triangle

Video Clip

At 2:10 p.m., five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo-bombers comprising Flight 19 take off from the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station in Florida on a routine three-hour training mission. Flight 19 was scheduled to take them due east for 120 miles, north for 73 miles, and then back over a final 120-mile leg that would return them to the naval base. They never returned.

Two hours after the flight began, the leader of the squadron, who had been flying in the area for more than six months, reported that his compass and back-up compass had failed and that his position was unknown. The other planes experienced similar instrument malfunctions. Radio facilities on land were contacted to find the location of the lost squadron, but none were successful. After two more hours of confused messages from the fliers, a distorted radio transmission from the squadron leader was heard at 6:20 p.m., apparently calling for his men to prepare to ditch their aircraft simultaneously because of lack of fuel.

By this time, several land radar stations finally determined that Flight 19 was somewhere north of the Bahamas and east of the Florida coast, and at 7:27 p.m. a search and rescue Mariner aircraft took off with a 13-man crew. Three minutes later, the Mariner aircraft radioed to its home base that its mission was underway. The Mariner was never heard from again. Later, there was a report from a tanker cruising off the coast of Florida of a visible explosion seen at 7:50 p.m.

The disappearance of the 14 men of Flight 19 and the 13 men of the Mariner led to one of the largest air and seas searches to that date, and hundreds of ships and aircraft combed thousands of square miles of the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and remote locations within the interior of Florida. No trace of the bodies or aircraft was ever found.

Although naval officials maintained that the remains of the six aircraft and 27 men were not found because stormy weather destroyed the evidence, the story of the “Lost Squadron” helped cement the legend of the Bermuda Triangle, an area of the Atlantic Ocean where ships and aircraft are said to disappear without a trace. The Bermuda Triangle is said to stretch from the southern U.S. coast across to Bermuda and down to the Atlantic coast of Cuba and Santo Domingo.


“American carrier Lexington heads to Midway,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=6401 (accessed Dec 5, 2008).

“Aircraft squadron lost in the Bermuda Triangle,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=5575 (accessed Dec 5, 2008).

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Map: Pacific Theater 1941-1945

12 Jun


The Second World War
The Pacific Theater
1941-1945

First Phase
From 7 December 1941, until June 1942, the Japanese successfully attacked the Pacific Fleet’s base at Pearl Harbor, took Wake Island and Guam, invaded and conquered the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaya, and seized the British base of Singapore. They conquered Burma thereby cutting off China from all overland routes to the western allies, and seized the Netherlands East Indies and British Borneo, thereby securing a much-needed source of oil. The Japanese advance came to a halt with the American victories at the Battle of Coral Sea (May 1942) and the Battle of Midway (June 1942).

Second Phase
The second phase in the Pacific War was one of relative stalemate. From June 1942 until late-1943, neither side could muster the land, sea, or air power required to take the offensive and seize the initiative from the other. The Battle of Guadalcanal was an example of this stalemate.

Third Phase
The third phase, from mid-1943 until September 1945, can be characterized as the period of the Allied offensives. Two drives were under American control; General Douglas MacArthur’s Southwest Pacific Campaign and Admiral Chester Nimitz;s Central Pacific Campaign. MacArthur’s drive was characterized by a series of Army amphibious operations up the Solomon Island chain and along the northern coast of New Guinea, with the Philippine Islands as the ultimate objective. Nimitz’s strategy was designed to move directly toward Japan and to draw the Imperial Japanese navy into a decisive fleet engagement as happened at the Battles of the Philippine Sea (June 1944) and Layte Gulf (October 1944). MacArthur’s and Nimitz’s campaigns merged into one for the invasion of the Philippines. Afterwords the Central Pacific campaign continues with the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Fourth Phase
During the latter stages of the war the Army Air Force, operating out of the Mariana islands and flying the B-29 Superfortress, which begun to fire bomb the cities of Japan. These raids culminated with the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki on 9 August 1945. Japan surrendered to the Allies on 2 September 1945.

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World War II History for June 6

06 Jun

Today in WWII History

World War II History for June 6

1942 - Japanese forces retreated in the World War II Battle of Midway. The battle had begun on June 4.

1944 - The D-Day invasion of Europe took place on the beaches of Normandy, France. 400,000 Allied American, British and Canadian troops were involved.

The Battle of Normandy during WWII was fought between the German forces occupying Western Europe and invading Allied forces. It remains the largest amphibious landing in history, with more than 156,000 troops crossing the English Channel during the initial invasion. The battle continued for more than 2 months and concluded with the liberation of Paris. Of the invasion’s 5 coastal landing points, Omaha Beach proved to be the most disastrous for Allied troops.


DDay Invasion – Landing Chart


DDay Invasion – Sword Beach Map

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Battle of Midway – Video in Color

04 Jun

Battle of Midway – WWII in colour

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Battle of Midway

04 Jun

The Battle of Midway
June 4-8, 1942

The Battle of Midway island during World War II is one of the biggest victories for the United States against Japan. The battle itself lasted 4 days, beginning on June 4, 1942.

It was this battle which marked the turning point in the war for the allies in the Pacific. For six months prior to Midway the Japanese army and navy had conquered lands throughout the Pacific including the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and the Dutch East Indies. With the strengthening of the United States in rebuilding its fleet after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the Japanese had started to become more wary of the threat.

Japanese Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto was the mastermind behind the scheme to attack Midway, planning to destroy the rebuilt and remaining strength of the US Navy in one blow, the way it was planned to do at Pearl Harbor. Unbeknown to him, the US Intelligence had broken the Japanese naval code and had ample forewarning of the attack.

In anticipation of the attack the two US fleets stationed 200 miles northeast of Midway where the Japanese did not expect them to be, a position from where the US carriers could launch its aircraft and be in striking range of the Japanese fleet coming from the northwest. After spotting the Japanese fleet the US carriers launched their attack catching the Japanese by surprise, destroying three heavy carriers and one heavy cruiser. The Japanese retaliated with their one remaining carrier Hiryu, who’s aircraft attacked and crippled the USS Yorktown. The USS Enterprise returned the favor however, launching its dive bombers which mortally damaged the Hiryu, later scuttled the next day.

When the Battle of Midway ended, Japan had lost four carriers, a cruiser and 292 aircraft, and suffered an estimated 2,500 casualties. The U.S. lost the Yorktown, the destroyer USS Hammann, 145 aircraft and suffered approximately 300 casualties.

The Battle of Midway has been immortalized in books, full length feature films, and even games.

Read more about the Battle of Midway in our WWII articles.

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Photo: Marines Relax on Midway

01 May


(click for full size)

Marines on Midway relaxing outside a bunker. 16 Nov 1942

 
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